It was said that this community grew around the place where a native chieftain and the leader of a team of Spanish soldiers from Nueva Segovia met and struck friendship by exchanging gifts--the latter reciprocating with a box of "imitation jewelry."

The community was first known as Tabang, later changed to "Cabarungan" and still later to Sto. Niño. Then, by virtue of Executive Order No. 2390, dated February 23, 1914, issued in response to the petition of the residents, Sto. Niño was changed to Faire.

The village of Tabang grew in population and a certain level of socio-economic importance. The natives took to dressing like the Europeans and through the zealous efforts of the missionaries, embraced the new Catholic faith. As a reward, the Spanish authorities in Nueva Segovia caused the construction of a church in Tabang in 1731.

Years later, a barangay of people from Dingras, Ilocos Norte, settled in Tabang. One of the Ilocano immigrants was Manuel Faire who was the first resident in the town of Cordoba to which Tabang belonged then. There he met and married Felicitas, the beautiful sister of Capitan Ubaldo Pagulayan.

Through hard work and thrift, and with his marriage to the family of a landholder, Manuel Faire became an influential community leader himself. Because he demonstrated his concern for the welfare and well being of the people, both Ilocanos and natives, he won their affection and respect. The people built a big house for him and his beautiful wife.

Through his examples, and with the farm technology brought in by his fellow Ilocano immigrants, the people raised good crops of corn, rice, coconut and tobacco. It is said that he was one of the signatories to the founding of Sto. Niño on November 27, 1897. The grateful people perpetuated his memory by petitioning the authorities concerned for the renaming of their town from Sto. Niño to Faire, approved on February 28, 1914.

In the 1960s, the town of Faire was marked prominently on the map of Cagayan when the STANVAC invested some $3 million in oil exploration there. Although drilling was abandoned, the venture catalyzed economic activity in the municipality.